U.S. Pat. No. 5,883,268 describes a process for preparing propylene oxide that comprises peroxidation of ethylbenzene. The peroxidation reaction mixture can be contacted with aqueous base in an amount sufficient to neutralize acidic components. Subsequently the resulting mixture can be phase separated into separate aqueous and organic (hydrocarbonaceous) phases. The organic phase, which contains some base, can be water washed to separate the basic materials. In the process of U.S. Pat. No. 5,883,268 water was stripped from the organic phase.
WO-A-03/066584 describes a process for preparing alkylaryl hydroperoxide containing product. In this process an aqueous phase also has to be separated from an hydrocarbonaceous phase. The separation in WO-A-03/066584 can partly be carried out with the help of a coalescer.
The presence of residual basic materials, such as sodium salts, in an organic phase comprising an organic hydroperoxide may cause problems in subsequent processing of the organic hydroperoxide.
Improvement of the removal of such basic materials, furthermore allows higher amounts of base to be used for neutralizing any acidic components in the peroxidation reaction mixture. By improvement of the efficiency of the basic material removal, the removal of acidic components can therefore also be improved.
It is thus desirable to provide an improved process for the preparation of an organic hydroperoxide, wherein the removal of basic materials can be improved.